Sunday, 13 February 2011

The following colorful remark from the Lefsetz Letter - suggests that the revolution in the music industry antedated the uprising in Egypt.

I would suggest before reading it that one takes a deep breath and remembers that for business analysts generally, and those engaged in "analyzing" the music industry especially, there is a tendency to take the view that nothing succeeds like excess (or hyperbolic overstatement.)

Here it is:

EGYPT:

“We were there first, music fans already revolted. They killed not only the album, but the major labels. We’re living in an era of chaos. To complain is to be Mubarak. The audience was oppressed for too long, given an opportunity to go its own way, it did. Remind me how it helped the audience to have to buy a fifteen dollar CD to hear the one track that was a hit? Now they just buy the hit on iTunes. And if they don’t do that, they don’t even bother to steal it, they just watch it on YouTube. You don’t need to own it, next year it won’t mean anything.”